#A School Frozen in Time

[slowestsnailaround]

[snowburiedleaf]

[a-few-of-my-favorite-mangas]

A School Frozen in Time (2021)

Story by Mizuki Tsujimura

Art by Naoshi Arakawa

Manga Volume 3 of 4

Shounen, Mystery, Horror, Young Adult

Story  ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆   ||   ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆   Art

Summary

First, there were eight, and now there are six. With Mitsuru and Shimizu now missing, everyone is on edge as they try to find a way out of their horrifying circumstances. The remaining students continue to suspect that the person keeping them trapped is among them, but Shimizu also suggested a bizarre, new theory: they may be inside the mind of the person who took their own life at the school festival. Takano thinks he might just know who their tormentor is, but many unanswered questions still remain. Can he get to the bottom of this mystery before his time's up?

Review

This is a hard issue, another suicide, bullying, bulimia, child prostitution, depression, and well this series got even darker.

We start off the issue with Akihiko remembering how he failed to help his friend Yutaka when he was being bullied and his abandonment of his friend in his time of need is what lead him to suicide, or at least he feels that blame and shame.  Akihiko disappears.

Mizuki is breaking under the pressure of the situation and tries to commit suicide, the others quickly act to stop the bleeding, and Takano reveals that she has been seeing a therapist for depression. Takano, suspects that it is Mizuki that is behind all of this, she has been very depressed for a long time after the fight with her friend Haruko. Takano has always been there for her, but it doesn’t seem like he is enough.

Then we shift to Rika’s story and boy this one was a hard to read. Rika has a really hard home life.  Her mother was worthless and would often run off with a new man and leave her kids to fend for themselves. She has a little sister named Yumi who is still in kindergarten, so it is up to Rika to provide for them, her only option is prostitution. The situation is hard and as much as she loves her sister, she can’t help but see her as a burden and their life one almost too hard for her to bear all the responsibility for... but Rika is more resilient than she thinks and she fights to live. Rika disappears.

Takano isn’t convinced that all of their friends are dead, but only taken or managed to escape or are trapped somewhere else. He thinks the key is finding out who committed suicide during the school festival - the one everyone seems to have forgotten.

Only four remain: Takano, Keiko, Mizuki, and Sugawara, when time stops again and now both girls go missing... 

[puppyeared]

i feel like im not making any sense but does anyone else feel like there are stories that let u run with them and ones that spell everything out for you

[softpine]

this is a gift, it comes with a price who is the lamb and who is the knife?

[transcript]

[shiresome]

Bats are cool

Bats are cool. Unless of course I Am The One Controlling The Bat

[the-b1ah]

[leafmealonetodecay]

do you think I can live off of monster energy and the handful of blackberries I collect on the walk to and from school?

[uh-oh-its-bird]

Old highschool tropes are outdated, when do we get the updated version?

- that one girl who inexplicably hates the cheerleaders and actively wishes for one of them to fall from the top of the pyramid and break her arm for no real reason

- that group of boys who sit at the back of the room and very loudly and graphically pretend to have gay sex

- the takis girls w the hoops and the long nails and their one gay guy friend who all loudly tell the teacher they're gonna run a strip club when they're older and if the teacher comes by they'll get free drinks from the bar

- that one weird kid who's definatley watching hentai in class and or reading bootleg yaoi off wattpad

- the kid who passes around a flash drive with bootleg minecraft downloaded on it to all the other kids so they can play RL craft in class on their computers (the teacher does not give a shit)

- the band kids and choir kids who appear to have some sort of blood feud going for them

- the 6th ""permanant"" substitute teacher of the year bc the school can't find an actual teacher to hire and all the subs eventually quit too. He's visibly checked out of the lessons and gives free reign to the children so long as no fires are set (nothing has been taught in this class since the first month of school and graduation is in 3 more months)

- the kid who comes to school with wet hair dye still in their hair and on their eyebrows, who then washes it out in the school bathrooms and stains the skins

- the kids who vape in the bathroom, causing the entire school to lose bathroom privileges (not to be confused with the kids who ripped the stall doors off the stalls, though they are equally at fault)

- the substitute who used to work in the government as security for notable politicians and has the type of personality that everyone actually believes it (she has that standing invitation to go to the students strip club for free drinks one day)

- the kid unfortunate enough to find a trash bag filled with used condoms in the bathroom

- the gay kids (they band together like rats)

- the kids with horrific home lives who casually drop genuinley just the worst thing you could possibly think could happen them, yeah whatever you're thinking is right, randomly at lunch as everyone else at the table goes "Wow that's wild" then keeps eating their shitty cafeteria pizza

- that other kid who always comes to school sleep deprived because they couldn't sleep over the noise of their dad and new step mom having incredibly loud sex (every day they draw closer to running away)

- the one red haired kid who gets ostracized for being a ginger (and also that time they threw a fully frozen juice box at someone and had to get an in school restraining order against them for assult)

- the "seizure kid" who got a seizure at the school dance once and instantly became famous for it

- The principle who published erotica and can not hold a single assembly without someone in the crowd screaming "I LOVED YOUR BOOK" and someone else screaming "WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE PART" back at them, so they scream "THE PART WITH THE BUTT STUFF" (she later quits only to be replaced with a principle referred to by students as "pedo mustache")

[vintage-tigre]

[slowestsnailaround]

[snowburiedleaf]

[a-few-of-my-favorite-mangas]

A School Frozen in Time (2021)

Story by Mizuki Tsujimura

Art by Naoshi Arakawa

Manga Volume 2 of 4

Shounen, Mystery, Horror, Young Adult

Story  ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆   ||   ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆   Art

Summary

A regular school day has turned into a chilling horror as Hiroshi, Mizuki, and their friends find themselves confined within the frigid walls of Seinan Gakuin. No one can seem to remember who took their own life at the school festival, but whoever it was is keeping them captive. And to make matters worse, the eight trapped classmates become seven when Mitsuru suddenly disappears with only a trail of blood in his place. Now they have even more reason to solve the mystery of their bizarre circumstances -- because if they don't, the only thing they may be leaving is this mortal coil...

Review

Shimizu offers up the ‘Langoliers Incident’ as a possible explanation for what has happened to them, that they have been trapped inside the conscience of another person, possibly the person who committed suicide, but no one seems to remember who that was. As in part 1, a student is isolated from the group and sent down memory lane. We learn that Shimizu admires Takano, his cheerfulness, his friendliness, his selflessness - the ‘entity’ tries to trick or confuse her but ultimately she see though it. We do learn more about Shimitzu and Takano, at least though her eyes, before she too disappears after remembering what the ‘entity’ wants them to remember.

The others discover that Shimitzu is missing and it shakes everyone up, especially Takano. He and Akihiko talk about who could possibly be behind what is happening to them, and Takano thinks he knows. We learn about Mizuki and the fall out she recently had with her friend Haru, that left Mizuki in bad shape. We also learn more about the events that lead up to the suicide during the school festival. Akihito was there to witness the jump... so why can’t they remember who jumped? Are they the ones behind it, or is it the person who tormented the jumper?

This issue was another page turner, the back stories are interesting and you can’t help but look for clues within their memories to try and figure out what is going on. 

[cartoon-skeleton]

My prof gave us this giant slab of plywood and said we had to cut it up in 4-6 pieces and rearrange it to make a painting about time and narrative (unless you don’t want to, he said, do whatever). This shit is heavy as fuck but it’s ok because I’m the strongest person in the whole world and nationally renowned arm wrestler. Anyway, I drilled through the front of my panels in 4 places by accident because I forgot to measure the width of the scrap wood i was using to brace the pieces. Idgaf though. Like genuinely I am not sad. Also, the school only allows gamsol in the studios and there are signs about that everywhere but my professor has old man cred and actually made it a requirement that I use linseed oil because he said it was a “shame” how my “beautiful colors” were not allowed to be luminous because the gamsol flattens them so badly. So now I’m being illegal in the studio, but apparently literally everyone has been doing that this whole time. Shout out to me for not being able to discern the severity of certain rules. You can already see the difference tho. The panel with the silhouettes, all the snow was painted with linseed oil. Every other dull matte panel is all gamsol. Anyway this is due Tuesday and I only consider it 50 percent done so wish me luck

[marypsue]

I was lulled into a false sense of security by everybody posting about the cookie monster pyjama pants girl.

[lightblueminecraftorchid]

they call me the griever because halfway through a thing I enjoy I’m already sad that it’s closer to being over